Rising costs, driven in part by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, will be central to Sunday’s agenda, where leaders will work simultaneously to keep up their pressure on Moscow while looking for ways to alleviate price spikes that they have cost them politically.
This could be a difficult task. Russian energy bans have contributed to rising world oil prices, but leaders hate easing sanctions they believe have an effect on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s economy. An area that have announced actions: ban imports of new Russian gold.
“This is a key export, a key source of revenue, a key alternative for Russia, in terms of its ability to make transactions in the global financial system. Taking this step cuts that capacity,” a senior official said. the administration.
The ruling highlighted the divisions surrounding U.S. politics and institutions, which have acted as a troubling subtext for leaders watching Biden’s attempts to restore U.S. leadership.
Here are a few things to look forward to at the G7 summit on Sunday:
Find the balance
Biden and his fellow G7 leaders will discuss ways to punish Russia as they continue to run an unstable global economy during their first day of talks Sunday in the Bavarian Alps. The talks will produce some announcements and “muscle movements,” according to a senior White House official.
“A major focus of the G7 and leaders will be, you know, how to manage not only the challenges of the global economy as a result of Mr Putin’s war, but also how to continue to demand accountability from Mr Putin and to ensure I know he is subject to costs and consequences for what he is doing, “said John Kirby, the National Security Council’s strategic communications coordinator, as Biden flew to Europe.
Biden’s first engagement on Sunday will be a bilateral meeting with the summit’s host, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, followed by the G7’s inaugural session focusing on the global economic problems that have been exacerbated by the Ukrainian war.
“I think leaders will look for ways to do two things: one, continue to hold Mr. Putin accountable and increase the costs and consequences of his war for him and his economy,” Kirby said. “And two, minimizing the effect of this rise in oil prices and the way it has armed energy in nations, especially on the continent but also around the world.”
This balance will define this year’s G7, as leaders work to maintain their campaign to put pressure on Putin while facing rising inflation that has cost some leaders politically at home. Biden stressed the G7 and NATO’s solidarity with Ukraine and the Russian invasion, and told Scholz before the meeting of the two leaders that the groups must remain united.
“We have to stay together. As Putin has told us from the beginning, that somehow NATO and the G7 would split, but we haven’t and we won’t,” Biden said.
Leaders have agreed to announce a ban on importing new gold from Russia, Biden said on Twitter Sunday morning. Gold is Russia’s second largest export after energy.
Biden has suffered some of the toughest setbacks as it has seen its approval ratings drop amid rising prices.
“There may be growing pressure on American politics, in the sense that some people in the primaries we’ve seen have already said I don’t care about Ukraine. What matters is the cost of living,” he said. say a European official before that. one week trip. “And if the president got a rebound in the polls because of his leadership in Ukraine, that will dissipate very quickly. So there will be that effect.”
Division back home
Biden said Friday that the Conservative majority in the Supreme Court “made the United States an atypical point among the developed nations of the world” by eliminating the right to abortion nationwide.
Two days later, he will meet face to face with the leaders of those nations in the Bavarian Alps, leaving behind a rapidly dividing country, whose conflicting politics have aroused the world’s concern.
The White House does not believe the ruling or the fractures that now divide America take into account Biden’s discussions.
“There are real issues of national security here that need to be discussed and the president is not at all worried that the Supreme Court decision will take it out at all,” Kirby said.
However, four of the six fellow leaders Biden joins in Germany found the government monumental enough to weigh on themselves.
“I have to tell you that I think it’s a big step backwards,” said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. It’s a “devastating setback,” said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. French President Emmanuel Macron and Scholz were also critical.
It remains to be seen whether the sentence comes out in Biden’s private discussions. But the fundamentally changed and divided country he left behind will never be far from the mind as he represents it on the world stage.
Challenging China
At last year’s G7 summit off the coast of Cornwall in England, Biden pressured his fellow leaders to insert a new harsh language condemning China’s human rights violations in a final statement. Prior to the paper, the group sometimes had heated conversations behind closed doors about their collective focus on China.
The issue may spark tense talks, as some European leaders do not necessarily share Biden’s view of China as an existential threat. However, the president has repeatedly made it clear that he hopes to convince his fellow leaders to take a harder line. And Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has amplified the president’s warnings about autocracies versus democracies.
On Sunday afternoon, Biden is expected to present, along with other leaders, an infrastructure investment program aimed at low- and middle-income countries designed to compete with the China Strip and Route Initiative.
Beijing has invested billions in building roads, railways and ports around the world to forge new trade ties and diplomatic ties. Biden has released a similar program in the past, dubbing it Build Back Better World.
But with this seemingly withdrawn name, the White House is renewing its effort in Germany.